updated 08:42 am EDT, Wed May 8, 2013

Acer first to market with sub-10-inch Windows 8 tablet

The leaked Acer Iconia W3, which first surfaced on the weekend has been confirmed for June 4 launch in Russia. The launch date was revealed by Acer's general director of the Taiwanese company's Russian office, and provides an indication for its global rollout. The device briefly appeared on the Amazon store, before it was quickly pulled.

The Acer Iconia W3 will be the first Windows 8 tablet to go on sale that is sub-10-inches in size. Microsoft recently made a switch in its screen resolution requirements for Windows 8 that has helped to pave the way for smaller Windows 8 tablets to reach the market. A study by Strategy Analytics showed that Windows OEMs only sold a combined total of 3 million Windows 8 tablets in Q1.

However, half of all tablets sold globally last quarter were smaller tablets like the 7-inch Google Nexus 7 and the 7.9-inc Apple iPad mini, suggesting that Windows OEM's have, until now, been unable to address half the potential tablet market. Microsoft is also said to be working on its own smaller Surface tablet, while other manufacturers are said to be prepping their own smaller devices as well.

The Acer Iconia W3 has a 1280x800 8.1-inch display and is powered by an Intel Atom Clovertrail+ chip clocked at 1.8GHz and paired to 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is 32GB, while it also has includes a micro USB 2.0 port and a micro-HDMI port. Front and rear cameras are 2-megapixels and battery life is rated at up to 8 hours. It weighs just 1.1 pound and is expected to retail for $380 when it goes on sale stateside. [viaPhone Arena]